Hurricane Harvey was strengthened by climate change

The pictures and stories coming out of Houston tear at our hearts. We may have family, friends or acquaintances who lost everything.

But what should also tear at our hearts are three up-front-and-distinctly-clear things: the severity of the storm was worsened by climate change; the severity of the destruction was worsened by land use decisions in Houston and the surrounding area; and the severity of the losses are being particularly borne, as always, by the poor.

Hurricane Harvey might have happened with or without climate change — but Harvey was made more ferocious by the more than 7 degrees warmer air over the Gulf that carried much more moisture than usual. It was flooding, more than the winds that destroyed.

Harvey might have destroyed homes and businesses, but paving over hundreds of acres of farmland with impervious concrete, filling in wetlands and ignoring even weak regulations on building within the floodplain practically guaranteed that losses from a hurricane would be incredibly high.

Harvey did not distinguish between rich and poor, but folks in substandard housing or those who could not afford insurance will have a much harder time recovering.

We grieve with the victims and want to help. But in addition to empathy, humans have at least some degree of forethought.

While spending our tax dollars to help Houston rebuild, does it not make sense at the same time to summon our political will, our tax money and our common sense toward long-term climate action that can mitigate future destruction?